


Meet me in the stars (I'll trade you my heartbeat)

by FallingNarwhals



Category: Danny Phantom, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, One-Shot Collection, Trans Danny, allura is jealous, but in general its all platonic all around, danny stopped aging around 20ish and he can change his apperence slightly, different chapters from different timeperiods that take please in the same universe, immortal!danny phantom, immortal!vlad masters, might eventually become shiro/matt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-10-27 10:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10807542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallingNarwhals/pseuds/FallingNarwhals
Summary: Short stories in a universe that needs saving, an immortal halfa that just wants to have a purpose again, and five humans with the stars in their eyes.





	1. Chapter 1

It had been six hundred years since Danny Fenton first faked his death when he realized he wasn’t ageing. He looked to be in his early twenties, but people who first meet him swear that his eyes are much older than that. When he isn’t focused on a task they stare ahead, dim in the light and that his mind is a million light years away.

Then he blinks, and he’s back. He does his task dutifully and perfectly, slowly climbs the ranks in the Galaxy Garrison to a teaching assistant, and catches three of his favorite students on the roof one night, looking for aliens.

He goes along with them when the alien ship crashed into the desert because fuck, he’s been looking for aliens for six hundred motherfucking years and he ain’t gonna follow commands when he was so close. Pidge is able to hack quickly into the cameras and he feels a surge of pride for them.

When Lance and the kid that Lance called “Keith” had run out of the pop-up tent with his old instructor Shiro in their arms, he instantly knows that he won’t be coming back to the Garrison for a while. Stealing a technical prisoner from the government tends to get you recognized for a few years.

Shiro recognizes him when he wakes up the next day, and Keith talks about the ruins inside the cave systems. Danny remembers that this place used to be uninhabited for years back before he died, that it’s logical that ruins seemingly made by aliens wouldn’t have been discovered for a while.

When they find the lion Danny feels a surge of energy, energy that hasn’t touched humans before.

Lance can’t fly in simulators, but in this lion he doesn’t fly. It’s like the ship is a part of him as he dodges the lasers from an alien warship (Aliens!!!! Aliens are real!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and he feels so damn proud of this kid. He’s flying a ship that was made for aliens and doing it perfectly.

When they go through the portal that feels like its unstable, he panics a little and may have pooled a little bit of ectoplasm into his hands, ready to surround these kids in a shield if this was a trap, but then they reach the end and a beautiful planet is in their sights, complete with a beautiful castle.

He waved off the kid’s pesters of “what the fuck was that green shit mr fenton’’ and shiro’s “danny what the fuck” saying he’ll explain it later.

When he starts floating, which seems more natural in this ever so slightly heavier gravity, he laughs at the shriek from the other kids and smiles. “Not now, let’s go explore this alien castle!”

They all think he’s a bit too excited. They follow him anyway. Whatever Danny is, they’ll rather have him in front of them so he could protect them. This was Danny who gave the students contraband candy and wears pink socks under his crisp uniform, who Shiro had to give a detention to once because he beat up someone who was badmouthing ghosts.

Ghosts. Shiro’s eyes widen as they walk down the steps of the alien castle.

Danny was a ghost.

When Allura and Coran fell out of their pods, it was Danny who assured them that they were alright and explained what was going on easily. And explained to everyone what he was.

A half ghost. Pidge excitedly went into several technical terms and Hunk followed shortly after, grabbing his hands and admiring the structure and being way more interested in a ghost then the aliens that were rather confused and puzzled until Danny started floating again.

He didn’t get a lion, but he didn’t take it personally. His powers, aging in his human body like wine for six hundred years, were more than powerful enough to almost match the lions. He could help in his own way.

He finds some spare paladin armor and it changes when he finally transforms, the metal tingling with new ectoplasm and a new technology.

His eyes were not dull anymore. He had a new purpose in his long life and he was going to do his damn best to save the universe.


	2. heal like a piece of mold

There was times when Danny Fenton (or Pine, Wood, Smith, White, the dozens of other last names he went by to avoid the government on his ass but Fenton was a personal favorite) hated his tendency to avoid injuries or heal like a piece of mold. Because when he got his arm cut it sewed itself back together almost instantly, leaving a thin white scar that criss crossed his rather pale skin and left a gaping hole in his mismatched armor. 

It meant that he didn't have to use the cryopods often, which was a good thing. Coran and Lance swore by the rule “You sleep in it you clean it” and although it was such a small thing it really made the team smile when Lance joked about it.

It meant that he had to watch his teammates get shoved in when their suits shorted out and electrocuted them and he had to look at the burn wounds on Pidge’s small body (they looked so similar to his own, the first ones he ever got more than six hundred years ago) and Pidge was so small, their arms too thin, he wondered if Jazz or his friends ever felt the same way.

These kids (Shiro was a kid too, twenty something years is nothing to six hundred and eleven) had destiny thrust upon them before they were ready, and weren’t even old enough to quite process it. 

Pidge tended to roll with punches and they were so focused on finding their family that they never really thought about the obscurity of the situation they were in. 

Keith was the same, but Danny couldn't guess his goals. He knew that he slept with a knife under his pillow and he doesn't want to know what made a kid like him feel he had to do that on a ship full of his teammates and mice. 

Hunk just wanted everyone to be happy, even if that meant sacrificing his own happiness. He tended to take one too many shots that the other lions could have handled, and that over protectiveness made him a raging fire. But he to didn't want this. He wanted to go home, but that meant defeating a ten thousand year old army.

Lance was always one of his favorite students. That came to be when he caught him sneaking outside to get better reception to talk to his family, and denied having tear tracks on his face when Danny “caught” him after he hung up.

Lance didn't want to be here either, and yet here he was, the paladin that spent the most time in the cryopod because he was so goddamned selfless.

It was quite without them. It was a constant chatter, much like Danny’s years passing by in nothing more than a blink that you never seemed to miss until it was gone.

(And then you had to change your identity, the last name, learn a new language that popped up in the past two hundred years, shave half of your head.)

Shiro had just as many scars as Danny did. If he had gone back in time and took a look at the Shiro that taught him how to fly a hoversail the differences would be comical. The Instructor Shirogane then was a nerd, who was thin and although good looking looked like he spent more time studying than eating.

The Shiro now got colds often because that scar went right through his sinus and had several huge claw marks on his back and tiny, thin scars on his wrist and the inside of his elbow that looked like injection needles that were designed to hurt. 

And he was missing an arm. That was a big change.

It glowed and killed Galra and melted metal like ectoplasm and once when Pidge painted his nails it burnt off and smelled disgusting.

(he was standing here now, in the middle of the room with his teammates in cyropods, picking at the chipped nail polish now.)

(Hunk made it using the ingredients in the kitchen, it was supposed to be a sauce of some sort but Pidge put it on their nails and it was just like human nail polish.)

(Sam loved to paint his and Tucker’s nails.)

He jumped when a pale hand covered in faint blue lines gently pressed on his shoulder, but relaxed when he saw the rather intimidating mustache. 

“Don’t blame yourself for this, Danny.”

(You knew Coran was serious when he used your name rather then your number by height.)

Danny smiled, but it didn’t cover the sadness in his eyes. “Thought it was number two?”

(Danny always used humor as a cover, no matter what last name or haircut or slight facial change.)

“I was the same way when the paladins of old got hurt. Alfor was so reckless, he tended to get stabbed more often than I preferred. Thought he could just pop into the pod afterwards. Sometimes he gave up his spot to a refugee while he was bleeding out on the medical room floor.” Coran chuckled.

“I hate the pods.”

That made Coran pause. “And why is that?”

“Because I know what near instant healing feels like on a human,” Danny said, holding up his forearm and pushing back the sleeve to reveal a thin scar that wrapped around his arm, decorated by many others. “On a human you could get stabbed. When you get healed you’re still tired because you just felt your organs slip out of your body and a knife in your brain but you’re fully healed so you still _need to fight. _Humans aren’t robots.”__

__“I see,” Coran said softly. “You’re afraid of overworking them.”_ _

__“And traumatizing them. Pidge is like, an infant compared to us.”_ _

__“That much so. Human aging is so odd.”_ _

__They stood in a comfortable silence, the faint hum of the pods barely audible, even to Danny’s ears._ _

__He hated seeing his new friends get hurt, and being able to do nothing about it. But he was content to wait it out and talk to Coran while these alien machines put his team back together again._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this got such a nice responce yall! thank you for any kudos or comments you leave!


	3. Nothin' more than a few human cells and ectoplasm kept together with superglue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> vleb

“We’re almost to the mainframe, Pidge.” Danny reported, blasting a drone’s metal head off with a casual ectoblast from his fingers, before Shiro tackled another and melted the neck to the head, rendering it useless.  “You got the virus ready?”

 

“Uploading to your armor now, along with the facial recognition features to look for humans.” Pidge replied, the sound of laser fire in the background of their comms. “Which includes humans that could have been captured by the galra before, and my brother and father.”

 

“Ya mean Shiro's  _ boyfrieeeeendddddd _ .” Lance sing songed though the other end, before letting out a whoop of excitement as a crack that sounded suspiciously like the Blue Lion using her ice cannon. Shiro froze next to Danny, and Danny felt a swarm of hot emotions swell though him.   
  
“Let’s be professional guys.” He said embarrassingly. Danny let out a small laugh.

 

“Centenary coming your way, nearly sixty drones.” Pidge reported. “On your starboard.”

 

“Takin’ off my helmet so y’all don’t hear this. Shiro, cover your ears and get behind me.”

 

Shiro nodded, and huddled in a fetal position behind Danny’s lanky figure. It seemed like a cowardly move, even to the galra with their different body language, but it was the only way he could survive hearing Danny’s wail. 

 

Danny inhaled the thick atmosphere, and concentrated on the hallway the drones were storming down, and let it out, the ectoplasm-laced air knocking the soldiers to pieces. The lights flickered on and off, the thick walls crumpled, and Shiro shivered. The centenary leading the troops fell to his knees, and as soon as the Wail stopped Shiro leaped over Danny, his hand lighting up and stabbing the Galra in the stomach, his armor melting onto his skin.

 

And then Danny felt it. A powerful presence of ectoplasm that he hadn’t felt in centuries, throbbing and weaker then he remembered, but warm and familiar.

 

He charged down the corridor, growling at Pidge to open the door in front of him, ignoring Shiro’s questioning shouts and when the green paladin didn’t open it right away, he lit his hands up with sharpened ectoplasm and tore into the metal, rage coursing through his body. He felt fangs grow in his mouth and his hair getting looser, and he tore the thick door to the small cell open, revealing a huddled blue figure in glowing chains and rags.

 

“ _ You _ !” Danny spat, shooting a blast of ectoplasm at the chains, snapping them away from the man’s wrists. “ _ Let’s see how weak I am now _ !” 

 

He launched himself at the man, his nails conforming to claws and tearing at the man’s back, before his hand raised and elbowed him away, flying to the ceiling of the cell before pushing off, tackling Danny by the waist and pushing them both out of the cell.

 

They tumbled into the hall, Shiro was shouting some words of confusion that Danny didn’t even bother to translate, tearing at each other’s limbs and fighting like animals.

 

Not animals. Ghosts.

 

Danny pinned Vlad Masters to the floor, left arm raised with glowing ectoplasm that reflected in the man’s dim red eyes, matted hair tangled in the chain around his neck, a gaping mouth panting for breath revealed broken teeth.

 

“Please.” 

 

In English. Danny didn’t even realize he was swearing in the eternal language of ghosts. He smiled.

 

“Good to see you, fruitloop.”

 

And then suddenly they were laughing, tears running down both of their faces and they embraced, sobbing and looking at each other’s hands and saying some unintelligible words in ghost and english and maybe some galran thrown in there-

 

“Vlad?” Shiro asked softly. “I remember you. You spared me so I could become the Champion.”

 

Vlad cast a look at the Black Paladin. “You escaped before I could, I see.”

 

“Yes sir.”

 

“And your boyfriend and his father?” Vlad stood up, acting as if he was the pristine millionaire back on earth despite dressed in rags and in an alien prison. Some things never seemed to change.   
  
“Lookin’ for them.” Shiro tapped the side of his helmet. “Pidge wants us to upload the virus soon as we can, Danny.”

 

“They gave it to me already. Toss my helmet here.” Shiro threw the helmet, and Danny caught it and put it on in a smooth move. “Take Vlad to the black lion. He’ll need a healing pod after the number I did on him.”   
  
“Lion?” Vlad asked. “Voltron?” 

 

“Hell yes.” Danny grinned, realizing that moment that his fangs hadn’t shrunk into his gums yet. “You’re looking at the Paladin of the black lion.”

 

“You powerful motherfu-”

 

“Not me, fruitloop. Humans.” He tapped a finger to his spare helmet. “Pidge, guide me to the port.”

 

“Up through this hallway and down six floors. What  _ fuck _ happened?” 

 

“Found an old friend.” Danny shot though the ship at record speed, uploading the virus faster than Pidge could blink. “Can you ask Coran to prepare a pod for him?”

 

“Him? A human?” Hunk asked.

 

“Not quite.” Danny bared his teeth at the hallway full of galrani drones, not planning to leave any survivors. “Someone like me.”

 

The hallway exploded with ectoplasm from his body, and he _laughed_.  

 

* * *

 

Vlad was extremely skinny, compared to the buff-chested asshole he remembered from Earth. Ever since he took off from that base on Jupiter Danny hadn't seen head nor tail of him, and he soon found out why.

 

“After you destroyed the base, remaining equipment was giving me readouts of a powerful source of energy and quintessence nearby. I went to investigate, and got captured. When they realized how powerful I was, they threw me into the arena for entertainment.” Vlad said simply, legs folded neatly and hands still. “When I met Shiro, I let him defeat me.”

 

He lifted up his ragged uniform, revealing a thick scar across his stomach. Danny nodded. 

 

One thing that was definitely off about him was the way he acted and carried himself, like he was still a prisoner that could get beaten if say the wrong thing. He was humble, to say, but nearly six hundred years in galra imprisonment did a number on him.

 

His eyes were empty, still pupilless but lacking warmth. 

 

“I remember,” Shiro said. “I cut open your stomach, and you shoved your organs back in while walking to the guards. We had adjoining cells, and we talked for hours between the shifts of guards. You were human, once.”

 

“I was.” Vlad said. “Now I’m afraid I’m nothing more than a few human cells and ectoplasm. If I was a normal human I would have long died.”

 

Danny nodded in agreement. “That’s a bit like what happened to Danielle. Her ghost half was dying after the ectodejecto ran out after my parents died, and now she has to go to the ghost zone when she’s feeling melty. That’s why she couldn't come with me, unfortunately.”

 

“Danielle? Still alive?” 

 

“In the ghost zone.” Danny confirmed. “Being a little shit mostly.”

 

“I’m glad to hear that. She was a great comfort to you.”

 

“Like, my weird clone daughter sister thing? I loved her. BFFs for afterlife, man.” Danny smiled. 

 

Shiro jerked the lion to starboard in surprise. “You have a daughter?”

 

“ _ Hell  _ no!” Danny yelped, steadying himself on the wall of the lion. “This asshole here tried to clone me a while back by taking my human DNA, but I’m trans, right? When the clone was born she felt and identified as a girl rather than the others, who were like guys, mostly? There was a weird shrinky one that didn't seem to give a fuck about gender norms. She almost died a few times. It’s a very long story.”

 

“That almost sounds as wild as me and my boyfriend and my boyfriend’s dad getting captured by aliens, me escaping and piloting a giant robot lion with my cousin, my cousin’s boyfriend, my cousin’s boyfriend’s best friend, and my boyfriend's genderless sibling.” Shiro deadpanned.

 

“And a exe student who is a ghost.”

 

“And an exe student who is a ghost.” Shiro agreed. 

 

“Our lives are fucked up.”

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr @narwhalsarefalling or my writing @ravenbyntious


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